Our recent vote was pretty clear on this one - grilling with salsa is a real hit with the members. So in honor of Monday's celebration (and Steven's recent blog post) the theme for this month is Cinco De Mayo.

Out west, Cinco de Mayo is just the excuse we need to bust out the wood and bring on the cerveza. It isn't Mexican independence like a lot of people think (that's September 16th), but just a commemoration of the victorious battle between French and Mexican forces (I blogged about it last year: http://wp.me/p2n8S6-8W). That battle eventually led to independence. Anyhow, I took full advantage of it last weekend. I had a great fire and did chicken thighs in an Achiote Marinade and Skirt in a Beer Marinade. Sides of rice, beans and a grilled salsa. Everything came out excellent and now the house is only full of memories, a few dirty pots and the smell of oak smoke.

Steak and Chicken on the Parrilla

Skirt Steak, marinated in Beer and some other good stuff - sliced against the grain

Skirt and Chicken off the grill

The works

Last edited by scorched_porch on Sun May 18, 2014 5:30 pm, edited 4 times in total.

I haven't been grilling much this month but I do have one finished CDM cook and another one in the pipeline. A couple of weeks ago I picked up some nice boneless short ribs and used them for quesadillas.

I made a marinade with Mexican beer and ordinary taco seasoning, and let the cut-up ribs sit for about a day.

The grill basket made cooking them a snap.

Then we each built our own quesadilla and I took them back to the grill to put some char on the tortillas.

Last week I used the chipotle rub recipe from Rick Bayless' book Everyday Mexican for some tacos. I thought that finding chipotle powder might be difficult but I didn't have any trouble.

Instead of flank or skirt steak I used sirloin, because it was already in my freezer.

For accompaniments I went with salsa verde and beer from Mexico, not just Mexican-style products made here. The salsa label says "medium" but what's inside is definitely more fiery than what medium usually means!

These were simpler than what I did with the short ribs, mostly because Mrs. Chicken was working and not home for dinner. The chipotle rub has a nice flavor without being too strong or spicy, and I'd use it again.

These were simpler than what I did with the short ribs, mostly because Mrs. Chicken was working and not home for dinner. The chipotle rub has a nice flavor without being too strong or spicy, and I'd use it again.[/img]

It would seem that "simpler" is just as good sometimes. I have a flat of sirloins I was planning to cook as soon as the rain lets up here, and I was planning on going with something very similar to what you cooked here. Now I know it's the right choice - nice work!

Unlike propane, you'll never wake up scorched and naked in another county because you mishandled a bag of briquettes.

Wow!-Nice work guys! Thought I could bring some Sriracha drums to this party. Just grill 'em and roll 'em in butter and hot sriracha sauce. Lots of strong, interesting flavor here! Served with corn on the cob and cucumbersalad with sour cream dressing.